Kazwyn
Kazwyn Selshiram The most controversial figure in elven history, and easily the most famous outside of the Brightleaf Clans, Kazwyn died as he lived - in a whirlwind campaign to protect the clans he loved so much from what he saw as a multitude of outside threats. While not the first elf to look outside the Northern Wilds with a jaded and paranoid eye, he was the most recent child of the Wilds to actually assault foreign territories. One might assume that the startlingly small army and thin line of supplies that he had to work with would have hampered these efforts, but Kazwyn's three signature gifts were a knack for outside-the-box tactical and strategic planning, a grasp of Elemental (and especially Wind) Magic unmatched by any one mage before or since, and a gift for attracting other powerful warriors and mages to his cause, including non-elves. With these, he toppled a number of kingdoms, fiefdoms, principalities, and minor empires, shattering and resculpting the political landscape in ways that persist to this day. The controversy arises with his methods. While there was little doubt that the clans were in decline, with more of the Wilds disappearing to human and orcish incursion each day, Kazwyn technically attacked in a time of peace, without the backing and against the orders of the Evergreen Sentinels despite being one of their Senior Strategists at the time. Additionally, utilizing wide-scale Elemental Magic as his primary form of assault led to trememdous amounts of collateral damage and hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties in nations and countries that refused to enter into a non-aggression pact with him, as Bastion did. What, if anything, his endgame was is still hotly debated, as the Sentinels themselves elected to violently end his meteoric attack before the many remaining nations on the continent could unite and storm the Northern Wilds in a flanking maneuver - it is said that his good friend, the warrior Tyion, finished him off, although the historical veracity of this is likewise debated. Certainly, he cannot have planned to take and hold the entire continent as Brightleaf Territory: while he frequently managed impossible stunts with a fraction of the manpower others deemed necessary, he simply didn't have the bodies for a holding action. The most common theory was that it was simply a display of power, a show of force designed to intimidate the surrounding nations into ceasing direct interference in the Wilds, not to mention reducing the military capability of any group he deemed too large a threat, and if that is the case, then it worked beautifully. There has been no further large-scale incursion into the Wilds since his assault. The Vivexian Empire occasionally boasts that their might was sufficent to keep Kazwyn away, but less biased historical scholars argue that their sheer distance probably did more to protect them than their military profile, which was similar to at least two other countries that the elven warlord demolished with little difficulty. There is also strong support for the argument that it saved the Brightleaf Clans from extinction. Though it still remains a mystery as to why, the Clans saw their first increase in population in a thousand years immediately after his campaign ended, boosted even further by the sudden multinational withdrawal away from the Northern Wilds. For that matter, the destruction of several national powerhouses led to a simultaneous grab for territory and power that benefited several human nations - those most friendly to the Clans - directly. As a result, whether Kazwyn is viewed as an ambitious and charismatic warlord, a tragic yet glorious hero, or a vicious, amoral psychopath depends largely on where and who you ask. Few outside the Northern Wilds ever learned which clan he came from - following elven custom, he refused to give his clan name to outsiders in a time of war, in order to shield his home and family from direct reprisals. It is for the same reason that he never associated himself with the Sentinels after his attack began, although he certainly welcomed any that wished to join his crusade. Of the Sentinels that joined him, some were killed by the vengeful remnants of ruined kingdoms, but most were reinducted to the Clans and the Sentinels themselves, which the more conspiracy-minded take as proof that the elves approved of Kazwyn's actions all along, his assassination be damned. While it is true that the standard penalty for such an action would be execution, the real reason for sparing the deserting Sentinels was that there were too many adherents to his cause - killing them all would have fatally weakened the Evergreen Sentinels, and by extension the Brightleaf Clans. Official elven writings about him tend to be didactic and dry, but various unofficial accounts and epic ballads have been written about his campaign that persist to this day.